With some warm temperatures forecast for yesterday and occasional sunshine, I thought I would have a few hours down at Sandwich Bay to see how the Dainty Damselflies were doing and to see the work the observatory have been doing in the Dainty field. On arrival at 1030am, the sun was starting to come through and it already felt quite warm and after a chat with Steffan (the warden), I made my way to the site. It certainly had changed with a raised walking area to the pools and two new pools dug out which hopefully the Damselflies will soon find in the next year or so. I hadn't been walking for long when I soon started to see Dainty Damselflies in the grasses and everywhere I looked, they were present. I spent some time photographing the smart males before visiting the original pool where there were many flying out over the water, mating pairs in the grasses and tenerals leaving the pool for the first time. I must have seen at least 300 Dainty Damselfly and I'm sure there must have been more present. They really were everywhere with just the occasional Blue tailed Damselfly and Azure Damselfly seen. It just shoes if the habitat is correct, they will indeed flourish. With a number of photos taken and hopefully a pot of Dainty exuviae collected which I will have to check carefully, I made my way back to the car and then off over to Grove Ferry for a couple of hours. It was still warm on arrival at 2pm but more cloudier and in my walk around, I only managed to find c12 Norfolk Hawker. I'm hoping that the weather made a few perch up and not fly around rather than a number of dykes which seem quite overgrown now. Hopefully their numbers will increase in the coming days. I did find an obliging male to photograph which hopefully shows off how stunning this species is. A thoroughly enjoyable day, more like this please!
Dainty Damselfly (Coenagrion scitulum) - male
Dainty Damselfly (Coenagrion scitulum) - pair in tandem
I note more high numbers with at least 300 Dainty Damselflies seen Marc, and a great deal of work with the shutter too. I think you may already know this, but the Norfolk Hawker has been within 20 miles of my home city of Lancaster in the north of England recently.
ReplyDeleteRegards....Pete.
Yes, plenty of action with the shutter button and pleased with the results. I'm sure the Norfolks will be with you soon. They're slowly moving north. Take care.
DeleteQuality pictures are what I like and you certainly supply them Marc. Well done. regards, Mike.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you Mike and hope you are well. Thanks for your nice comment. In reality, they are pretty small so I hope my photos enable you and others to appreciate their details. Take care.
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